On Oct. 28, 1965, Pope Paul VI officially issued a brief “Declaration on the Relation of the Church to non-Christian Religions” titled “Nostra Aetate,” whose fourth section deals with Judaism. Terms like “historic,” “turning point,” and the like are often overused, but this is one of the rare instances where they are appropriate. The current commemorations celebrating the 50th anniversary of the document mark a genuinely significant moment.
“Nostra Aetate” was adopted by a large majority at the Second Vatican Council after a lengthy, complex, and contentious process that cannot detain us here. What is of great relevance is the historical setting in which it was produced, the specifically Jewish dimension of which was the Holocaust. The moral introspection generated by that catastrophe was further stimulated by the campaign of some Jewish intellectuals, notably Jules Isaac, who urged the Church to undo the “teaching of contempt” that had characterized its approach to Jews through the ages. However, exclusive attention to this dimension obscures the larger forces transforming the moral and intellectual landscape of the 1960s. The egalitarian impulse that produced the civil rights movement in the United States and de-colonization worldwide did not sit well with traditions of religious exclusivism and triumphalism, let alone the condemnation of the other to discrimination and damnation.
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